shawn13 wrote:Has anyone ridden one and can give feedback. I read a few statements of guys riding them saying they are faster turning and lighter bar pressure than the xbow.

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Thanks. I did read that and replied . Just hoping to get a couple more perspectives before i make a purchase. One shop told me to go for it, another said i would spend more time repairing it since id be using it for free ride light wind and not racing.

shawn13 wrote:Just curious. Could you use an IDS bar with the kite or is the race bar significantly different? Besides the 24/27m lines and the cleat de-power what is the difference?

I looked at changing an 09 IDS bar to one front line flagging.
The problem was that the connection between the front line and the top of the IDS line is too big to pass through all the parts it has to.
The later model IDS with the IDS line passing through the chamber of the powerline tube are likely to have the same problem.

I got on a friend of mines 11M this weekend he had on demo - Saturday. It was around 18 knots when I was riding. I am 190LBS. I loved it. In fact, I bought a 12M Slingshot Rally last year (the latest) and I liked the Velocity better for my riding style. The boosts were huge and it rips upwind. In fact, it feels very close to a Speed 3 12M but is an LEI. The aspect looks similar. (I used to have a Speed 3 - 12 and 19). Light bar pressure compared to any Cabrinha I have ridden. I have a 10M and 8M Switch and I used to ride Crossbows so I am very familiar with Cabrinha. The bar set up is awesome - very clean and simple (old school looking). When I showed up the beach on Sunday - it was around 25 knots or so. My buddy was boosting huge air and I could not believe he was not overpowered. He did not have to de-power it - looks like it has huge wind range. Only concern we all have - seems fragile - time will tell. He is a big Flysurfer fan and has not bought Cabrinha's since 2007 - primarily bc of bar pressure and they have not come out with something that is radically different. This one caught his attention and he is pulling the trigger on the 11M. I highly recommend this kite if you are into huge boosting and like to get upwind easy. Not sure yet on how it drifts - probably not great but it is light, so who knows. Hope that helps. Also - turning felt decent (faster than my Rally but the Rally is not a fast turning kite at 12M)

Figured I'd chime in here...just got done riding the 11M velocity, and here are my impressions coming from a guy who has a quiver of Ozone Edges who used to ride Switchblades and XBows. I rode the 11M Velocity back to back with my Edge:
Speed: Very fast...this kite will be a contender for sure...every little pull on the bar made a difference. really close here...the Velocity actually may be a little quicker than the Edge pound for pound. Really. Just so quick...
Upwind: Awesome....thing sits way forward in the window, just blasts upwind, then again, so does the Edge. Probably dead locked here.
Turning: Fast...much faster turning that the Xbow, not sure compared to the Switch, it's been a while since I've rode one, and about the same turning speed as the edge...Again, damn close here.
Boost: This is where things were surprising. The Velocity boosts really really well. For me, the Edge boosts a little higher, however, if I rode the Velocity more, I may be able to get it darn close to the Edge. This kite, similar to the Edge, really wants to be brought past noon to boost well...if you just send it to noon, you wont get anything spectacular. But wow, most boost I've ever had from a Cabrinha. Just blasts you off the water. I'd say probably dead locked here.
Hang time: Sorry Cabrinha fans, Edge flat out wins here. It's not even that close...the Velocity drops you considerably quicker than the Edge hands down, end of story. This was surprising given how similar these kites felt on the water, and how similar they are in design. After I got off the kite, I watched a guy get off a 9M Edge, and fly the same 11M Velocity, and the airs were fairly similar in height, but you could see watching from the beach how much quicker he dropped with the Velocity. Weird.
Bar Pressure: Wow. Finally, a Cab with really nice bar pressure. Less than the Switch, less than the XBow, and agin, surprise, dead locked with Edge. (although, the edge was on the heaviest setting, and the Velocity was on the lightest, so the Edge on the lightest setting will probably win here, but it's so much better than any other Cab I've ridden)
Coming right from my 11 Edge, the thing that I noticed the most was that damn IDS system the Cabs have makes the fully sheeted in position much further out from your body than the Ozones. I'm 6'0" tall, and I'd have to bend way over, or just let go of the bar to get the thing to fully depower. If you have a seat harness, or a boardshort harness, this may not matter, but if you ride a waist harness you'll notice this for sure. Drove me crazy, but I will say that the depower line on the Velocity was amazing, you didn't have to lock it back into the cleat like the Ozones, just pull, let go, kite depowered. So nice...
One last thing, the Velocity was really floaty in the sky, was super forgiving on transitions, and I think seemed stiffer in the air than the Egde...like zero canopy flutter.
Overall: If you're buying a kite for racing, it'd be hard to beat the Velocity, even with the Edge. If you are a Cabrinha fan, and you want a nice freeriding kite that boosts huge, you'll love the Velocity. However, if you're picky about hangtime, and this is as important to you as boost, then go buy an Edge for sure. Not sure how everything else was so close except for hangtime...but I'm not a kite designer.
Hope this review helps someone...

It is made for racing specifically as Cab really wanted a competitor to the Edge in races. Bernie Lake on Cabrinha vs. J.H. and the Kochs. It will work for light wind, but being high aspect makes it more of an apparent wind kite than a low end grunt kite. A novice rider would find it a bit finiky to fly in light wind.

Sorry Stafford, but I have to disagree with you here. The Velocity has even MORE low end than the Crossbow LW. The 18 is a beast. Check the video from earlier in the thread - it's the only kite in the air at one point - including the foils!! Add to that the low bar pressure, low steering impulse, bigger wind range, easier to trim control system and we have a winner on our hands.

Damo has done several demos of the Velocity in FL and most of the kites being sold to consumers right now are for freeride because it has the most kick ass performance "hooked in" that one could ever ask for. Monster jumps and hang time. We designed this kite for racing, but it carries over to freeride. The only negative is the removal of scuff guards and thinner bladders to make the kite lighter and more efficient. This will require good care from the owner.

shawn13 wrote:Just curious. Could you use an IDS bar with the kite or is the race bar significantly different? Besides the 24/27m lines and the cleat de-power what is the difference?

Short answer is no.

Longer answer, the safety system on the kite is different, so as you could probably use any bar with equal line length, the ids safety system wouldn't work, so if you punched out of the kite, not sure what it would do. The velocity bar is a single line flagging safety system.

Has anyone tried an IDS bar on a kite that normally uses a single line flagging system?

Activating the QR of IDS bar on SLF kite would be like pushing the bar away. You would only achieve normal depower through the bar.

Cab Driver wrote: The only negative is the removal of scuff guards and thinner bladders to make the kite lighter and more efficient. This will require good care from the owner.

For this reason I will be getting the new Xbow instead. I spend too much time kiting alone that I will destroy it on self launch and landings.

I did hear that the new generation of Xbow will be a beefier version of the Velocity. When they come out ill trade up to that. Hopefully they keep the SLF on the new Xbow if its much better than the IDS. I hope this info I heard is true!

jayandseven wrote:Figured I'd chime in here...just got done riding the 11M velocity, and here are my impressions coming from a guy who has a quiver of Ozone Edges who used to ride Switchblades and XBows. I rode the 11M Velocity back to back with my Edge:
Speed: Very fast...this kite will be a contender for sure...every little pull on the bar made a difference. really close here...the Velocity actually may be a little quicker than the Edge pound for pound. Really. Just so quick...
Upwind: Awesome....thing sits way forward in the window, just blasts upwind, then again, so does the Edge. Probably dead locked here.
Turning: Fast...much faster turning that the Xbow, not sure compared to the Switch, it's been a while since I've rode one, and about the same turning speed as the edge...Again, damn close here.
Boost: This is where things were surprising. The Velocity boosts really really well. For me, the Edge boosts a little higher, however, if I rode the Velocity more, I may be able to get it darn close to the Edge. This kite, similar to the Edge, really wants to be brought past noon to boost well...if you just send it to noon, you wont get anything spectacular. But wow, most boost I've ever had from a Cabrinha. Just blasts you off the water. I'd say probably dead locked here.
Hang time: Sorry Cabrinha fans, Edge flat out wins here. It's not even that close...the Velocity drops you considerably quicker than the Edge hands down, end of story. This was surprising given how similar these kites felt on the water, and how similar they are in design. After I got off the kite, I watched a guy get off a 9M Edge, and fly the same 11M Velocity, and the airs were fairly similar in height, but you could see watching from the beach how much quicker he dropped with the Velocity. Weird.
Bar Pressure: Wow. Finally, a Cab with really nice bar pressure. Less than the Switch, less than the XBow, and agin, surprise, dead locked with Edge. (although, the edge was on the heaviest setting, and the Velocity was on the lightest, so the Edge on the lightest setting will probably win here, but it's so much better than any other Cab I've ridden)
Coming right from my 11 Edge, the thing that I noticed the most was that damn IDS system the Cabs have makes the fully sheeted in position much further out from your body than the Ozones. I'm 6'0" tall, and I'd have to bend way over, or just let go of the bar to get the thing to fully depower. If you have a seat harness, or a boardshort harness, this may not matter, but if you ride a waist harness you'll notice this for sure. Drove me crazy, but I will say that the depower line on the Velocity was amazing, you didn't have to lock it back into the cleat like the Ozones, just pull, let go, kite depowered. So nice...
One last thing, the Velocity was really floaty in the sky, was super forgiving on transitions, and I think seemed stiffer in the air than the Egde...like zero canopy flutter.
Overall: If you're buying a kite for racing, it'd be hard to beat the Velocity, even with the Edge. If you are a Cabrinha fan, and you want a nice freeriding kite that boosts huge, you'll love the Velocity. However, if you're picky about hangtime, and this is as important to you as boost, then go buy an Edge for sure. Not sure how everything else was so close except for hangtime...but I'm not a kite designer.
Hope this review helps someone...

Thanks this is exactly the kind of review I was looking for;

I have a quiver of B6 + a Speed 4 10. I was waiting for the speed 4 18m but it looks like it wont be coming soon. I tried the xBow 18lw the other day and if it wasn't forr the speed and the bar pressure I would have ordered one. The absence of cuff guard don't bug me too much as I will use it only in LW.

jayandseven wrote:Figured I'd chime in here...just got done riding the 11M velocity, and here are my impressions coming from a guy who has a quiver of Ozone Edges who used to ride Switchblades and XBows. I rode the 11M Velocity back to back with my Edge:
Speed: Very fast...this kite will be a contender for sure...every little pull on the bar made a difference. really close here...the Velocity actually may be a little quicker than the Edge pound for pound. Really. Just so quick...
Upwind: Awesome....thing sits way forward in the window, just blasts upwind, then again, so does the Edge. Probably dead locked here.
Turning: Fast...much faster turning that the Xbow, not sure compared to the Switch, it's been a while since I've rode one, and about the same turning speed as the edge...Again, damn close here.
Boost: This is where things were surprising. The Velocity boosts really really well. For me, the Edge boosts a little higher, however, if I rode the Velocity more, I may be able to get it darn close to the Edge. This kite, similar to the Edge, really wants to be brought past noon to boost well...if you just send it to noon, you wont get anything spectacular. But wow, most boost I've ever had from a Cabrinha. Just blasts you off the water. I'd say probably dead locked here.
Hang time: Sorry Cabrinha fans, Edge flat out wins here. It's not even that close...the Velocity drops you considerably quicker than the Edge hands down, end of story. This was surprising given how similar these kites felt on the water, and how similar they are in design. After I got off the kite, I watched a guy get off a 9M Edge, and fly the same 11M Velocity, and the airs were fairly similar in height, but you could see watching from the beach how much quicker he dropped with the Velocity. Weird.
Bar Pressure: Wow. Finally, a Cab with really nice bar pressure. Less than the Switch, less than the XBow, and agin, surprise, dead locked with Edge. (although, the edge was on the heaviest setting, and the Velocity was on the lightest, so the Edge on the lightest setting will probably win here, but it's so much better than any other Cab I've ridden)
Coming right from my 11 Edge, the thing that I noticed the most was that damn IDS system the Cabs have makes the fully sheeted in position much further out from your body than the Ozones. I'm 6'0" tall, and I'd have to bend way over, or just let go of the bar to get the thing to fully depower. If you have a seat harness, or a boardshort harness, this may not matter, but if you ride a waist harness you'll notice this for sure. Drove me crazy, but I will say that the depower line on the Velocity was amazing, you didn't have to lock it back into the cleat like the Ozones, just pull, let go, kite depowered. So nice...
One last thing, the Velocity was really floaty in the sky, was super forgiving on transitions, and I think seemed stiffer in the air than the Egde...like zero canopy flutter.
Overall: If you're buying a kite for racing, it'd be hard to beat the Velocity, even with the Edge. If you are a Cabrinha fan, and you want a nice freeriding kite that boosts huge, you'll love the Velocity. However, if you're picky about hangtime, and this is as important to you as boost, then go buy an Edge for sure. Not sure how everything else was so close except for hangtime...but I'm not a kite designer.
Hope this review helps someone...

Thanks this is exactly the kind of review I was looking for;

I have a quiver of B6 + a Speed 4 10. I was waiting for the speed 4 18m but it looks like it wont be coming soon. I tried the xBow 18lw the other day and if it wasn't forr the speed and the bar pressure I would have ordered one. The absence of cuff guard don't bug me too much as I will use it only in LW.

Much more complete review than I was going to write (and valuable to me since I have not flown Edges) Only thing I will add is I loved having the 4:1 depower on the bar. I am hoping that over the next couple years this migrates into all bars.